


The Second Labor

by Goethicite



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Insomnia, Literary References & Allusions, Past Child Abuse, Stalking, Team Bonding, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-23
Updated: 2014-05-23
Packaged: 2018-01-26 05:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1676429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goethicite/pseuds/Goethicite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye chooses Dr. Jekyll and insomnia over Ward and Mr. Hyde.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Second Labor

Skye doesn't sleep after they start rebuilding SHIELD. The hunt, justice, had forced her to bed in the name of staying sharp, but now Ward is in a cell. And there's so much to do she falls behind every time she goes for more coffee. Sleep is a waste of precious time.

Whenever she lays down and closes her eyes, she remembers his hand at the small of her back and his big presence at her side. It had soothed her to sleep once to know Ward was nearby, that he and May were right there if Skye yelled. He had stood by her back while she worked, and she had liked it. He'd been her protector, her friend, and had been a breath away from being her lover as well. Now, her stomach churns when she thinks of him. Skye can't sleep, because she nearly fucked a Nazi. No amount of soulless internet porn or terrible sex ed had prepared her for this kind of fallout.

Simmons at least is there. So are May and Coulson. They don't tell her to sleep. May stands where Ward once did as Skye works. She radiates quiet rage and zen calm in waves that make Skye want to curl up and just bask in her presence. Trip is the next room, a mirror of what May used to be. Simmons hugs Skye every time they see each other, hello and good-bye. Like they might die while they're apart. She's quieter now like the Little Mermaid. The ocean stole part of her voice as payment for her survival. Each day she talks less and less as if she too believes giving up a few more words will pay off Fitz's debt to the dark water faster.

Fitz is in their infirmary, a permanent fixture in a private room. Skye plays the Sleeping Beauty Waltz on repeat when she visits like it might mock him back to awareness. The first time she had played Lana Del Rey's cover of 'Once Upon a Dream'. It made her cry all over his blankets though. So she goes with Tchaikovsky after that. Fitz is a brat, a dreamer and too much of a boy for Skye to respect him most days. But he's one of their own. And, even though his crush on Simmons was sometimes more obnoxiously offensive than cute, he was a good man. Skye watches Simmons try to shake him awake and wonders if maybe he's sleeping for all three of them, her, Simmons, and himself.

Skye had a family once, a home that felt like safety and warmth and hope. Hydra had eaten it, the Bus, May's smile, Coulson's faith, Simmon's laugh, Fitz. They had fed her a lie through Ward despite her genius and computer skills. They'd used her, shot her, tried to kill what was left of her family. Skye was going to burn them for that. Hercules had killed the Hydra after all. Cut off one head, two more take it's place… Unless you cauterize the wound.

Everything is fine. Skye hunts Hydra across the Net. Trip brings her tea when May is too busy. He rubs her shoulders too, not flirting but trying to fill the space where Ward's lie used to flourish. They need to be a team. Teams take trust. Trip brushes Simmons hair and spars with May like he massages the tension out of Skye's back. Ward hurt the three of them in ways not even Coulson understands. Ward, Grant, had been theirs in that amorphous way broken boys belong to the women who take care of them. Trip isn't broken which makes it easier to trust him.

Everything is fine. Coulson goes out into the world and brings back the other lost boys and girls SHIELD left when it crumbled. Skye builds them new identities detail by detail, line by line of code. They thank her. Some even try to make friends, but Skye has May, Trip, Simmons, and Fitz. She's got plenty of friends. Hydra has put her off making new ones.

Everything is fine. Coulson pats her shoulder and tells her that Ward is still safely locked away. He doesn't tell her about how Ward asks about her every day. "Where's Skye? How is she? If she's not okay, I'll fucking kill every one of you." But Skye keeps her eye on the live stream. She doesn't trust Ward to stay locked up. He wants her, Dracula to her Mina Harker. Maybe once he wanted her for herself, but that time is past. Skye's been in the system. She's heard the horror stories from the victims, barely dodged becoming one herself. Ward had been too good not to be one of the battered souls, but victims become abusers every day. It's a line Ward crossed before she knew him in any capacity. If she'd fallen into his trap, she would be a victim too. Until he made her a monster.

Everything is fine. She doesn't sleep for almost a week. Then she turns around, and Ward is behind her. Simmons reaches her first. All the scientist is holding is a broken test tube, but her teeth are bared ferociously. She settles over Skye, menacing the shadowed corners of the room of the fragment of glass. May is there next with Trip just over her shoulder. They part for Coulson.

"I saw him," Skye babbles to Simmons, sweet, poisonous Simmons, who never had fangs but take one bite out of her and find out how deadly sweet girls can be. "He was watching me work like he always does."

Simmons face crumples. "Oh, Skye. Shh… Ward's still locked up. He's not going to take you." She drops the test tube as her arms gather up Skye. "May and I won't let him." Coulson is watching them, but May is on bended knee with a hand on Skye's shoulder.

"You need to sleep." May's voice is kind but steely. "Skye, where do you need to be to sleep?"

Skye shakes her head, back and forth, back and forth. Because all she ever dreams of is calling Ward Grant. It's worse in the dreams, because that's what she wants to say. Being scared all the time isn't fun. If she went with Ward, he'd make her into something that would scare other people. And she'd never lose another night of sleep again.

"Take her to Fitz's room," Coulson orders. "Trip, find someone to run the base for eight hours. We all need to sleep."

Trip nods, sharp and martial. He does brush a hand over Skye's hair. "Tout va s'arranger, mon cher." His teeth are white against his skin, nothing like Ward. Skye loves his smile. It's all sunshine when he speaks French to her or Simmons.

May and Simmons pull Skye to Fitz's room. Coulson disappears and comes back with three trundle beds which barely fit in the small, windowless closest Fitz lives in now. They're a fire hazard, wool blankets and no space to move. Simmons has to crawl across one of the trundle beds to curl up next to Fitz. May pushes Skye down onto the trundle bed nestled up against Fitz's hospital cot. Skye lets May strip off the men's shirt she's wrapped herself in all week like a protective cocoon. May does let Skye kick off her own shoes though. It feels right to go down with May's arm over her back and Simmons warmth just out touching range on the other bed. Coulson and Trip stack their beds two deep against the door, a human shield between Skye and the outside world.

There's a gun on May's side of the bed. Outside, what's left of SHIELD stands guard over their new director and his unofficial cabinet. In a tower in New York, Tony Stark pulls up a map of Europe as Natasha Romanov passes Steve Rogers kung pao chicken, and Sam Wilson cracks terrible jokes to see how good Clint Barton's poker face is. A man who doesn't know his name sits in a grungy apartment in Berlin and tries to find the connection between the slight, beloved, and dying body he remembers and Captain America. Chained to his bunk in an underground, secret prison, Ward calmly spits out a mouthful of blood and goes back to chewing on his arm. He smiles when his tongue slides across the smooth metal of the small lockpicks he'd hidden beneath the skin there. Garrett had promised him Skye. This isn't Hydra's grand victory, but it is the new world. And Ward plans to collect in full.

**Author's Note:**

> What Trip says is "Everything will work itself out, my dear." I kind of adore him.


End file.
